After the Fire
by Ainyan
Summary: I found the endings to ME3 to be lacking. So, here's my head cannon. Note: Runs with the general Indoctrination Theory that states that all events in-game after Harbinger hit Shepard with his laser are actually the Reapers' attempts at indoctrination.


_Skipper, wake up!_

She drifted in darkness, weightless. She could feel nothing, see nothing, sense nothing but herself in the void around her. The pain that had dug deep into her bones was gone; so too was the weight of the world that had bowed down her shoulders. There was nothing here; no cares, no worries, no emotion. Was this what peace felt like? Was this how Ashley felt now?

_Siha, wake up!_

Emotion flickered, all too briefly. Confusion: Thane? But – no, it couldn't be Thane. He was dead, dying the hero's death he had deserved, protecting her – protecting them all. Maybe she was dead, too. Maybe that was the darkness, the emptiness. What had Benezia said? There should be light? But the dark was so peaceful – how could it be wrong?

_Shepard-Commander, wake up!_

Legion was right. This _was_ wrong. Her brain struggled sluggishly against the enervating lassitude as emotion sprang to life, panic licking at the edges of her consciousness. The darkness was no longer quite so peaceful now; it threatened at the borders of her mind, engulfing thought and memory as it struggled to overtake her. Her mind lashed out against it, thrashing to free itself of the void's clinging, cloying embrace. Pain awakened, radiating outwards. Her chest burned.

She gasped in a breath.

Air rushed into bruised and battered lungs, sparking nerve after nerve into a fiery network of pain, lashing through her abused body until the breath she'd drawn in screamed outwards through cracked, bloody lips, carried on a thin cry that weakly split the air. With anguish came awareness – the darkness was no longer dead, but alive with sensation. Rock surrounded her, dug painfully into those places where her armor had sloughed away from the force of Harbinger's laser. Bruises pinched and burned; cuts and lacerations tore across her skin in rivers of molten agony. There was no part of her that didn't hurt, and the enveloping pain threatened to drive her back into the looming void.

With pain came anger, and she used both to drive yet another breath into her lungs; then a third, until her body remembered how to breathe on its own, and she could turn her attention to more pedestrian pursuits – like freeing herself of the rubble pinning her in this darkness. Weakly, she flailed against the heavy weight crushing her chest, shoving futilely at it, keening in frustration as it refused to budge. Dropping her hand, she scrabbled against the ground beside her, trying to find something to give her the leverage she needed. Her fingers closed about an irregular rock, and she grasped it, raising it to strike it against the underside of the rubble pinning her down, striking a sharp, crystalline thwack. Grimly, she set her mind to her task and began to chisel her way out.

* * *

"Kaidan." It was a single word, but he could hear the concern in the turian's normally stoic voice. He glanced back over his shoulder, studying the scarred visage of the alien as the other peered out from around his perch, one hand gripping the sniper rifle as the other gripped the jagged edges of his rocky barricade. When the major didn't answer, only looked away, Garrus tried again. "Kaidan, look at it. I don't want to believe any more than you do – but how? How could she survive that?"

"We did." His voice was huskier than usual, hoarse from the smoke and dust that choked the battlefield and hung in ominous clouds above the fires sparked by Harbinger's angry beams. "If we survived it, she had to." He ignored the turian's shaking head as he lifted his own, focusing on the steady yellow lights so far above him – the Reaper's unblinking gaze, just waiting for them to move so he could blast them to oblivion as he had so many more before them. "If you want to go back, go. I've got to find her, Garrus."

Snorting, the turian shifted his grip slightly, easing the rifle onto his back as he stared out over the mangled corpses and torn streets. "I figure, what's a little more crazy in this whole mess?" There was no response, but he could see a minute amount of the tension ease in the human's shoulders as Alenko once more swung his gaze out over the ruined avenue. He knew as well as the major did exactly what his reasons were: How could he abandon her – his best friend, his sister-in-soul – or the man she'd chosen as her own? If there was even a chance…

"Garrus!" The strangled cry brought the turian out from cover, and with a snarl, he swung around, slamming his back against the rock shielding Alenko before peering around the opposite corner of his companion, seeking the danger the other must have seen. But there was nothing – "Garrus, look at Harbinger!"

The four yellow eyes of the Reaper leader were flickering madly, and even as they watched, the squid-like construction stumbled, its legs twitching as it swayed from side to side. With only a brief glance to share intention, the pair of them charged out of cover at the same time; the turian raised his sniper rifle, peering through the scope for any sign that Harbinger had noticed them, while the human's body was enveloped in a pale blue glow, his biotics ready to shield them should the Reaper try and take a shot.

It was clear, however, that Harbinger had more important things to concern itself with than the pair picking their way through the ruins of the battlefield, and as it jittered and danced above them, they eased around the piles of rubble, staring at each corpse they passed, seeking any sign that the body belonged to their Commander. Garrus wasn't sure if it was relief or dread he felt each time they confirmed that she wasn't among the dead – both, perhaps; relief that she wasn't one of these mangled shells, and dread that the next one might just be.

Abruptly, Alenko stopped mid-stride, thrusting out a hand to halt his companion's forward progress. They stood, frozen in tableau, staring forward – and then Garrus heard what the major had already noticed: the steady, rhythmic tap of rock on rock. The time for stealth had passed and even as the biotic glow surrounding the major evaporated, the turian holstered his rifle on his back. As one, they sprinted in the direction of the sound, hearts pounding in mingled fear and hope.

* * *

She dug furiously at the rock, absorbing the pain that each movement caused, shunting it into that deep well from which she drew her energy. Each breath pierced her lungs with shards of glass; each thrust of rock on rock sent her nerves singing, but she wouldn't give up now. She was alive, damn it, and she intended to stay that way. The strike of her makeshift chisel against the concrete holding her down echoed in her ears, driving back the darkness that still nibbled at the edges of her consciousness.

Suddenly, a blue glow spread around the rock, the light piercing into her eyes and eliciting a ragged gasp from her as she jerked away, striking her head against the hard ground beneath. She heard grunting above her, saw the hands take hold of the edges of the slab – and then she was free as it was thrust away, spinning jerkily off to the side. Those same hands grabbed at her, and she gave voice to an inadvertent scream of pain as they jarred those cuts and contusions. Vaguely, she heard the sound of bone on bone, acknowledged that something was broken, but that knowledge was overshadowed by the familiar faces that loomed above her.

"Shepard, oh my God, Shepard." That husky voice sang in her ears as she grabbed at Kaidan's forearm, struggling her way free of her prison. When he would have crushed her to him, Garrus stopped him just in time, pressing his hand against the major's armored chest. "Hold on – just hold on, we'll get you out of there." Drawing himself free of her grasp, he and the turian set to clearing the rest of the rubble around the Commander's body until no more obstructions remained.

Gingerly, the pair helped her out, drawing her up and out from her stone coffin. Leaving her to lean weakly against her lover, Garrus activated his omni-tool, recklessly spending his medi-gel supplies to deal with the worst of her injuries as she rested on Kaidan, head lolling on his shoulder, breath coming in short pants. As the worst of the pain subsided, she drew in one shuddering gasp of air, then let it go on a sigh, pushing gently away from Alenko's embrace. Her fingers convulsed on her chisel, and she forced them open from their vice-like grip, staring at the humble crystal – her salvation – resting on her palm. "Light in the dark," she whispered hoarsely. "Eve, you were right."

The pocket where once the crystal – talisman, a present from a krogan shaman – had rested was burned through, and she slapped helplessly at her hips, looking for a place to put it. Gently, Kaidan took it from her hand, sliding it into one of his pouches. "I have it. Come on, Shepard," he coaxed, sliding one arm around her waist while holding her arm with his free hand, "we've got to get you out of here before Harbinger – " Before he could finish the thought, their world was rocked by an explosion.

Harbinger erupted in a glorious display of molten metal and silver-white electricity. Engines whining, the Normandy shot overhead, the tip of the Thanix Cannon located in her belly still glowing white hot from the residual power of the laser which had ended the Reaper leader. All around them, the leviathans fell as the overwhelming fury of the Galactic Fleet poured forth, missiles and laser cannons finding their marks and reducing the colossi to nothing more than twisted heaps of scrap metal and mangled wiring. False dawn lit the air as the explosions continued both on the ground and in orbit; across the globe, the Reapers were systematically eliminated under the combined forces of the defenders of Earth.


End file.
